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A whistleblower says the environmental impact assessment of Australia's two biggest coal seam gas developments were fundamentally flawed. Former Queensland government environmental specialist Simone Marsh has told the Four Corners that she and her colleagues were expected to assess two Queensland projects totalling 38 billion dollars without enough time or basic information. Scientists from Southern Cross University say CSG may not be cleaner or greener than other fossil fuel industries.

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TONY EASTLEY: A senior public official has blown the whistle on the environmental impact assessment of Australia's two biggest coal seam gas developments, saying the process was fundamentally flawed.

Simone Marsh has told the ABC's Four Corners that she and her colleagues were expected to assess two Queensland projects totalling $38 billion without enough time or basic information.

Ms Marsh says for one of the projects she was told point blank there was to be no groundwater assessment.

Sarah Dingle reports.

SARAH DINGLE: In 2010, senior environmental specialist Simone Marsh was tasked with assessing the environmental impact of Australia's two largest coal seam gas developments. Ms Marsh says she was working under conditions at Queensland's Department of Infrastructure and Planning that made it impossible.

SIMONE MARSH: The information wasn't there so you can't do an assessment without the basic site information that the base line studies.

The ABC's Four Corners has obtained documents under Right to Information laws which show the approval process was rushed and put commercial considerations ahead of the environment.

Ms Marsh says she was particularly worried about the Santos approval.

SIMONE MARSH: I was taken into a meeting room, sat down and told that there wasn't going to be a chapter on groundwater and I was stunned. I said 'what are you talking about?'

SARAH DINGLE: The Queensland Water Commission says in some parts of the state the water table may fall up to 700 metres due to the coal seam gas industry.

The documents obtained by Four Corners show that Ms Marsh's colleagues were also feeling the pressure.

COLLEAGUE (voice-over): We were given less than four weeks to deal with 10,000 pages of documents. Once again I am faced with a physically impossible request.

SARAH DINGLE: Rick Wilkinson is from the Australian Petroleum, Production and Exploration Association. He's also the former head of Santos' LNG coal seam gas unit and says there was no pressure from industry on the approvals process.

RICK WILKINSON: I'd be very surprised if that's the case. We provide the data to the government, to the bureaucracy. How they manage their internal workings is their business.

SARAH DINGLE: The allegations come as scientists from Southern Cross University have flagged the coal seam gas industry may not be cleaner or greener than fossil fuels.

The scientists have already released research that's found the level of methane in air is up to three times higher than areas without coal seam gas.

DAMIEN MAHER: This is kind of the first independent data that's been collected in Australian coal seam gas fields, despite them being operated for you know a number of years.

SARAH DINGLE: Rick Wilkinson welcomes calls for more research, saying the industry has nothing to hide.

RICK WILKINSON: What the petroleum industry does do is look for methane seeps to help it identify where the coal seam gas is and where there may be shallow coal. This is well before any activity of coal seam gas. So I'm not surprised to see the variations at all.

SARAH DINGLE: Santos and QGC declined to be interviewed by Four Corners.

The Queensland Premier, Campbell Newman, supports an investigation into Simone Marsh's claims about the approval process by the state's Crime and Misconduct Commission.

TONY EASTLEY: Sarah Dingle reporting and the full story will be on Four Corners tonight at 8:30 on ABC 1.